A sacred place for the veneration of knowledge: Architecture - The intersecting edge between knowledge, its veneration and the sacred

Abstract:

Throughout the ages the search for knowledge has been a part of humankind’s inherent nature whereby
knowledge fulfils our desire to find meaning in our respective lives. Whether from prehistoric man or from
Adam and Eve, to Socrates, to Sir Francis Beacon, to Einstein, to You and me today, we all have and do
strive for knowledge as a result of various important attributes that humankind has discovered and
attained throughout its pursuit of knowledge - attributes such as personal and cultural growth, skills
development, personal enlightenment, ‘power gain’, ‘striving for success’ and that knowledge ultimately
has a value. These mentioned attributes of knowledge are collectively sacred as they are revered due to
the importance they hold for humankind and directly elevate all knowledge to the idea of being sacred - an
informal sacred.
Architecture and knowledge (and the attributes of knowledge) have always been linked. This linkage can
be seen through architecture’s facilitated spaces of knowledge production and information transferarchitectural
institutions such as the University and Library. In light of these facilitated spaces there is room
for architecture to expand on them and express a space that embodies knowledge in its entirety as well as
expresses knowledge’s revered status in respect of a sacred importance to humankind. This type of
architectural space would exist as “a sacred place for the veneration of knowledge” in acting as a centre for
and of knowledge and for and of information transfer while connected to notions of what people consider
the scared (the informal sacred).